


Good Intentions

by Babykitsune9



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/M, Funny story, Miroku is a good bro, Sesshomaru is weirdly adorable
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-15 03:48:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 21,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20859740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babykitsune9/pseuds/Babykitsune9
Summary: it was all his beasts fault- well, that and the lack of offspring among his species. So naturally when his beast managed to find him a nice human female to bring into his home as his breeder- a position that he had thought of all his life as a position of honor- the damned beast managed to pick the one female that didn't want him. Sesshomaru/Kagome. Funny story.





	1. Chapter 1

_It was odd_. He thought to himself as he slowly turned his head this way and that before sticking his nose in the air again and inhaling deeply of the scent that had managed to catch not just his attention, but that of his beast, before finally seeming to lock onto it and began walking.

His mind and instincts solely focused on finding the female that had left the wonderfully delightful scent behind while his inner beast told him everything that he needed to know about what to look for to help him _find_ the female.

**She is young.** His beast murmured within the confines of his mind. **Between eighteen and twenty four. Healthy. Strong.** **She smells beautiful...** With that, he had to concur whole heartedly. She did smell beautiful. And while that didn't exactly hurt things any- she could have been in her sixties and snaggle toothed and he would still; oddly enough, think her beautiful.

_What are the particulars of her scent? What is it based upon? _He wondered as he kept weaving his way through the crowded sidewalk. Letting his citrine gaze subtly check every face of every feminine being that he passed before quickly dismissing them.

They were not the one he was seeking. So they did not interest him at all.

**She smells like a combination of peonies, lilies, honeysuckles, lily of the valley, and the raw power of a supernova. It is exquisite. **

_Hn. _It sounded more peculiar than anything but if his beast thought it was exquisite then he would simply roll with it.

**What do you think she looks like? **His beast asked suddenly nearly causing him to trip over his own feet before he righted himself and kept going. His mind supplying his beast with enough information about his home land and the normally almond eyed, dark haired beauties that lived there for his beast to get something of a picture.

Though if he were totally honest with himself and his beast, he would have mentioned that many females in his homeland were so dull looking it was as if they lacked personality and the inner fire that had always drawn him to specific females. Although he wouldn't be totally bummed if this female happened to be a dark haired beauty.

It would just add to her charm in his eyes.

Meanwhile in his mind his beast was going nuts on him, playing mix and match with various images of the female face and anatomy. It was like playing Frankenstein, only his beast was sane. Or at least he had thought he was, right now he wasn't so sure anymore.

**I hope she has eyes like this, lips like this, skin the color of fallen snow, hair this color and cut and styled like this- **He got a flash of a face in his mind before his beast went back to work. **I hope the female is petite, shapely yet has enough curves to worship during intimacies. Do you think she will have decent sized breasts for us and pups to suckle? Our mate has the tits of a prepubescent male. I've always been disappointed about that.**

He let out a soft growl of annoyance.

Now his beast was just being a pain in his ass and taking his focus off of what he was doing, and he would not tolerate not being able to find the female he was searching for. Failure simply wasn't an option right now. If he failed to find the female...his beast wouldn't be the only one who went mad.

He'd go mad too. And that was never healthy for anyone.

The last time that happened, he'd _demolished_ a frigging country.

**She is near. **His beast said as he finally stopped playing dress up Barbie and was paying close attention to his surroundings. If he missed the female, his beast wouldn't.

It was a small assurance. But it made him feel better as his beast told him to stop moving for a moment and he did as he was bid only to find himself standing outside of a corner market several blocks from his work place, staring at the door anxiously as he waited for the female to appear.

And when the doors finally opened and she did, he had to bite back the whimper that he felt building in his throat as he laid eyes on her for the first time ever.

She was beautiful. Stunning really, with her long-ish shoulder blade length bob cut blue black hair, and her- Wait did she have blue eyes? He wondered as he looked at them a little closer as she began to walk passed him carrying her bag of food. Only for his hand to shoot out and grasp her arm, pulling her to a sudden stop.

He heard her gasp as she stumbled back a little bit in her small heels before she whipped her head around to give him the most peeved look that he'd ever seen before on a female of any species. He had no doubt that she was about to tear into him when his beast suddenly began to howl and jump around excitedly.

**Found her! Found her! Ours! Ours! **As he leaned down a little bit, getting into her personal space as he practically purred, his breath fanning her face. "You'll do nicely as my breeder." The female looked at him wide eyed in shock for a moment before pulling her arm free and rearing back her hand and punching him in the nuts just as hard as she could, causing him to yell out in pained surprise before his face was met by her knee and he went down hard.

Trying to figure out what the fucking hell had just happened while his beast suddenly stopped howling and jumping around and instead simply sat down and whimpered, **Bitch upset. **

_I think that's a safe bet to make_. He thought in response to his beasts sudden sullen silence as he heard the female snarl, "Go find yourself a pet whore somewhere else asshole!" Before turning and stomping off.

**Bitch is really, really upset. **

_Yes I know._ He thought as he slowly began to pick himself up off of the pavement. _I think we'll be pissing blood for a few hours._


	2. Chapter 2

After his run in with the as of yet unknown female, Sesshomaru decided that he'd had enough excitement for one day and slowly, very slowly due to the flaring agony in his manhood and balls, began to make his way home using some of the buildings as a prop up to keep him half assed upright and on his feet before he finally made the choice to flag down a taxi.

Once that was done and his tall six foot four frame was folded up inside of the back of vehicle, he quietly told the driver his address and then lay back against the seat and closed his eyes and tried to will away the pain that his chosen breeder had forced upon his person.

Frankly he had no idea just _what_ had caused the female to react to his statement so violently.

He was a physically and intellectually appealing male. He was also rich beyond most humans wildest dreams. He was honorable, hard working, owned countless properties around the world, as well as businesses that helped him to build an empire among the humans that now outnumbered his kind, one hundred thousand to ten maybe twelve hundred or so.

The sad truth of the matter was that his kind was slowly dying and were in desperate need of offspring.

So naturally when he had followed the delectable scent of the female that his beast had chosen as the future mother of his pups- he had expected the usual reaction from her being approached by one such as himself. Awe. Maybe a little bit of coy behavior. Some petting and innuendo's in the more extreme cases.

Violence had certainly not been anywhere on the list. And what was worse was the fact that it was physical violence. A female, had _actually_ come dangerously close to unmanning him in more ways than one. It was as shocking as it was laughable.

It was a good thing that he had a sense of humor or he'd be pretty pissed at the bitch right now.

Feeling the taxi come to a sudden stop, he slowly opened his eyes as the driver politely told him that he was home and watched him carefully shift around to get his wallet out of his pocket and fished out the male's payment plus a tip and then thanked him and carefully climbed out of the vehicle and closed the door before he began shuffling his way towards the door of his home.

He caught the scent of perfume in the air and made a humming sound as he slipped inside and began to slip off his shoes and jacket before placing his wallet and house key in the dish located on the table just a few feet away from where he stood.

Once all of that was out of the way, he slowly made his way towards the kitchen to get his junk some ice to numb him for a little while and was half done when his mate walked into the kitchen wearing a red pants suit, her dark brown hair was up off of her neck in a twist style and she was wearing her favorite jade necklace and earrings.

She looked wonderful. Just like always, however for the past while, something had been nagging at him about her. It wasn't that she was acting oddly or even less affectionate- she was still the same there. However in recent months she had taken to wearing more and more perfumes that were so strong that they could almost knock him out.

"Hello my love." Kagura said as she walked over to him and kissed him on the lips before noticing the ice pack and frowning a little bit as she drew away from him.

"Hello mate." He greeted somewhat awkwardly as he finished putting the ice in place and then carefully placed the pack on his crotch and sighed at the soothing cold sensation that he felt through his pants.

Kagura giggled a little bit at his antics and asked curiously, "What happened? Did you have an accident?"

He hummed before saying, "My beast has finally chosen a breeder to give me pups." Kagura blinked at him for a moment before quickly sliding into a seat at the table and waiting for him to continue. And when he finally told her of what had transpired she couldn't seem to stop laughing at him. The damned woman.

_Females._ He thought almost disdainfully as his mate slowly began to quiet, though the occasional chuckle managed to escape her. Earning the most dignified glare that he could muster for someone who had had his ass handed to him and was literally icing his junk.

Finally Kagura managed to stop laughing at his misfortune and asked, "Well if that's how she reacts to you claiming her as your breeder- I would love to see what she does to you during the actual process of pupping her."

He made another humming sound before stating in a wry tone, "She'd probably brain me with a lamp or something. Speaking of we need to put a place together for her for when she comes here."

"After what she did to you earlier, you think she will just fall in line?"

"No. She mentioned earlier that I was to go elsewhere to find a 'pet whore'. Do- do you think she misunderstood my intentions?" He finally asked his mate as she got a thoughtful look on her pretty face before muttering,

"What's not to misunderstand, Sesshomaru. You stalked the poor thing and then laid your hands on her-" He opened his mouth to mention that he hadn't hurt the female. Merely alarmed or surprised her, however his mate silenced him with a look. "And then you had the balls to tell her that she was to be your breeder. Not wife, mate, or even lover- but a breeder. Nope, nothing to misunderstand there. You do realize that these are not the dark ages right? Women have a say in these things now, and most of them respect themselves too much to subject themselves to something that they would find physically as well as emotionally damaging to them."

"So you think that she truly thought that I would do something so low as to simply use her and what? Take the pups and cast her aside as used goods?" Sesshomaru asked, sounding very much offended by the very idea.

"She doesn't know you Sesshomaru. She doesn't know what you expect from her beyond the use of her body to beget young."

**"Then I will find her and explain."** His beast said before retreating back into his mind again.

"It isn't that simple dear," Kagura said, hoping that her mate would take a moment to calm himself. "What if the female that your beast has laid claim to belongs to another? What if she's mated already? Or married? What if she already has a child or pup? What would you do then?"

"She is doesn't have a pup or child. I and my beast would have smelled it on her when we were close to her. And I smelled no male scent on her. So she is available to me at the moment. As for everything else asked... I do not know. All I know is that my beast has chosen her and I have no choice but to follow it's lead here."

"Then I suggest that you come up with a plan."

"I will," He assured her in a gentle tone before then asking, "So will you help me put a bedroom together for her?" Kaguara sniggered at him as she rose from her seat and told him no and then walked out of the room knowing that her mate would be dead in a week if he didn't watch himself with the female that his beast had chosen for them.

_Stupid male. _


	3. Chapter 3

"Kagome! What on Earth are you doing home so early child?" Hiashi Higurashi called out as he saw his granddaughter finally reach the top of the shrine steps. The poor child had had a tough time recently with some- some _cads_ harassing her- while at college. Which had been a source of great concern for him and her mother and younger brother for quite some time.

Kagome smiled at him, it was slightly strained and didn't quite reach her eyes like her normal smile would have, but he'd take anything he could get from his granddaughter. He was simply happy that she was home to visit for a change.

"Hi grandpa. How have you been?"

_Ah, ever the polite and delightful child._ Hiashi thought before catching onto her little game. She thought that she could distract him from his question by asking her own and because he had missed her so much- he would simply jump at the chance to tell her anything and everything like he usually did.

It was a nice try. But it wouldn't work on him this time.

"You never answered my question Kagome. Why did you arrive so early? We expected you at least a month from now." The girl flinched slightly before looking away from him and muttering.

"Can we not talk about the reason's why right now and just enjoy letting me visit?" She sounded desperate, pleading even. It was enough to break Hiashi's heart as he sighed softly and told her that her mother was inside of the house. Kagome nodded her head to him and then walked off to go greet her mother, leaving Hiashi to stand there gazing thoughtfully at her back as she disappeared inside.

The rest of the day passed agonizingly slow to Kagome as she went about her usual routine of bathing, changing her clothes, and then cooking the evening meal for her family. To say that she was dreading to upcoming conversation about her early arrival home, would be an understatement to say the least.

After all, they knew that she had been having some issues with some of the boys at school. Though she had downplayed the extent of the harassment she had suffered significantly. So much so that she dreaded telling her mother and grandfather about the trip to the hospital she had taken last night after somehow being roofied by one of the assholes.

If it hadn't been for the fact that she had been out with her childhood friend, Sango and refused to leave her side even when they had tried to drag her off- she would have probably suffered a fate worse than death.

And now because of it, both she and Sango were being called on the carpet by the families of the boys that had drugged her and been harassing her since her first year of school.

She wasn't going to downplay things this time. She simply couldn't. Her family would find things more than a little bit suspicious when she got summoned to court and slapped with restraining orders and other things. On top of that, the families of the boys involved with tormenting her were rich, and demanding that she be expelled from the school.

One of the fathers had even got up in her face and spat on her while calling her a vile slut. Of course, she had struck back. Taking him down a few pegs had been fun after what he had done to her in front of the school administration and the boys.

It had been fun, but not worth it. Not when her family would probably be dragged into the fight by the bastards and their idiot fathers.

Laying the last of the dishes for the evening meal out on the table, she then moved to the fridge to collect the sake that she had bought earlier when that damned demon had told her that she would do nicely- as his breeder.

She had been so pissed about that that she had nailed the son of a bitch hard and dropped him like a fucking bad habit before storming off in a royal snit. Honestly, what was it with the guys recently? Why were they all acting as if she were just a cum dump or something. Did she have a tattoo on her fucking forehead that said, _Plaything for your use, insert cock here._ With an arrow pointing down the bridge of her nose towards her nether regions.

Because if she did- someone needed to tell her so that she could remove it. She got damn tired of telling men to fuck off simply because they didn't seem to understand that no, meant _no_. Not, take me I'm yours.

"Kagome, everything looks wonderful." Her mother said as she took her seat at the table across from her grandfather who was sniffing at the air like a dog scenting something interesting.

"Indeed. Kagome you have definitely outdone yourself today. Thank you for cooking."

"No problem grandpa." Kagome muttered as she poured herself some sake and started drinking while her family watched her with expressions of both concern and worry. They knew from years prior that when she started drinking something bad had either happened or was going to happen.

Clearing his throat, Hiashi drew his daughter's eyes away from Kagome as he began fixing his plate so that he could eat. His daughter and Kagome following soon after. "Say, where's Souta?" Kagome asked after downing another drink. She hadn't seen her little brother in quite a while. So shouldn't he be hanging around the shrine somewhere making a pest out of himself?

"Oh! He's spending the night with a schoolmate tonight. But he should be back sometime tomorrow afternoon."

"Okay." Kagome said as she set her drink aside and slowly began to eat some stuff. She already felt kind of buzzed from drinking half the bottle of sake without anything on her stomach, so food was good.

"Dear, it hasn't exactly escaped our notice that something is bothering you. Would you like to talk about it?"

"What's to talk about? I had to go to the hospital last night after one of those stupid pricks drugged me and then tried to drag me off," Kagome didn't bother looking up from her current task. To be perfectly honest she almost felt as if she were speaking to herself. So she didn't notice the alarmed reactions of her grandfather and mothers. "Then once Sango and I got back at school after filing a police report- we were summoned by the school admins and had to face down not only the scorn of the assholes who can't take a fucking hint and leave me alone, but their fathers. One of which spat on me and called me a vile slut in front of god and everyone. Now they are talking about dragging me to court for stupid shit like stalking, harassment and some other stuff. And the school is talking about expelling not only me but Sango to."

The silence was telling. Both her mother and grandfather didn't know what to say. They hadn't realized that things _were_ that bad. If they had known, they would have taken her out of the damned school and placed her in a better one.

"And then today on my way home, when I stopped at the corner market some damn demon grabbed me and told me that I'd do nicely as his little fuck toy." It was at this point that the table was overturned by her grandfather as he suddenly got to his feet and shouted,

"What the hell?!"


	4. Chapter 4

Once Sesshomaru could feel his boys again without feeling any pain, he tossed the ice pack in the sink and then walked off to go take a warm shower. As much as having his man bits feeling no pain was great, another thing that was great was not allowing himself to get frost bite down there.

So a warm shower was in order.

And once he could finally feel everything normally again, he shut the shower off and stepped out and took his time drying off as he tried to think of several things at once. One was which room to place his little breeder in. He wanted her to be close to him while she was carrying his pups, for his peace of mind as well as her protection. So perhaps the room across the hall from his and his mate's bedroom would work?

It was spacious enough for a female to reside in, it certainly had enough room for the furniture and perhaps even a crib or two and a rocking chair that he could place over by the window so that the female could nurse his pups and sing them lullabies while she looked outside.

Plus whenever he wished to see her, she was just across the hall from him. Which was a serious win for him since it meant that he could visit her bed frequently.

And then there was what kind of furniture he should place in the room. He was thinking of hard oak. A Queen sized bed with some nice red and pink satin sheets. Or maybe blue? Like her eyes. With nice fluffy pillows and a heavy blanket for the winter, and a thinner one for the summer months.

And as for the clothing, well he was a tad bit at a loss there. Though the female was about Kagura's build, she was far more endowed than his mate was. Which caused a little problem since he had no idea what size her breasts were.

**They are a 36-C. **However his beast had no such issues apparently...

_Thank you, that was helpful._ Sesshomaru said to his beast as he slowly walked out of the bathroom and grabbed himself some sweat pants from his dresser and pulled them on before grabbing a brush and beginning to carefully groom his long silky silvery white tresses.

Once that was done, he left his bedroom to go do some internet searches on furniture and other things. He wished to have the female's room ready for her long before he brought her to his home. It took him five hours, more than a few searches to find what he was looking for, but by the time he was done, he had already purchased some nice clothing, formal attire, shoes, makeup, light and delicately floral perfumes, lotions, shampoos/conditioners for her long silky hair. Brushes, razors, soaps and other things as well as a nice sturdy solid white oak four post queen size bed and some other pieces. Mattresses, sheets, comforters, blankets, pillows- the list went on and on.

But after five fucking hours it was totally worth it.

Everything would be delivered in the next few days or so, then he would put everything together and decorate the room a little bit for her, and set everything up to be used.

In the meantime he would spend his time tracking her down and learning more about her and then explaining what was expected of her as his breeder. He suspected that she would have quite a few questions for him about the arrangement.

Sighing he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, only intending to close them for a second or so because of the fact that they had started burning a little while ago and the next think he knew, he was jerked back to awareness by Kagura as she leaned over him a little bit.

She was wearing her silk bathrobe, her hair was down and her face was devoid of any makeup indicating that either it was late at night or...morning. Groaning, he lifted his head and looked at his mate as he carefully wiped his eyes with his fingertips and asked, "What time is it?"

"It's seven in the morning. Do you plan to go to work today?"

"No. Too much to do." Sesshomaru said as he slowly leaned forward in his seat and began to roll his neck and then his shoulders to work some of the kinks out as Kagura nodded her head and then kissed him on the cheek and quietly wished him good luck before walking back out of his study to go about getting ready for her daily activities.

She had two more doctor's appointment's to go to today.

The moment that Sesshomaru was finally awake, he noted that the little calendar on his desk was circled in red, indicating his mate had to return to the doctor's again. Getting up out of his seat, he left his study to search her out and see if she wanted him to go with her since today's determining by her physicians may mean very well mean life or death for her.

And she should _not_ be alone.

He could put off finding the female he wished to bring into his home as his breeder for a little while. A day, maybe two or three. But he couldn't put it off indefinitely.

Finding his mate in their bedroom, he slowly entered the room and looked at her as he asked, "I forgot about your appointments today. Do you want me to go with you? I should go with you. Y-You might not be given great news and-" Kagura walked over to him and put her fingertips to silence him as she gave him a gentle smile.

"I'll be fine on my own today, love. I want you to spend the day stalking that poor female that your beast has chosen for you like a little rabbit. It will distract you and allow you to find her and maybe even move things along a bit. I suggest that you make sure to stop by the florist if you don't want her to kick your ass again."

He nipped at her fingertips with his fangs to get her to remove them from his mouth before saying, "Mate. I don't want to leave you alone today." He didn't say it aloud, but earlier when she had awakened him, he'd had a premonition of sorts. One where he held her in his arms and cried as she took her final breath.

"I cannot stop you if you really wish to go with me Sesshomaru. But you need to consider that by going with me- you may lose your breeder for a good long time."

"That won't happen."

"Oh?"

"I'll split my time up between taking care of you before I go looking for her. Because you are both equally important to me."

"Nine hundred years of being mated and you can still say just the right thing to make my heart skip a beat." Kagura teased as her mate gave her a heart stopping smile and then leaned down to nuzzle her cheek.

Nine hundred years of being mated to this female and he couldn't imagine a day without her. But the fact that his beast had chosen someone else for him was an indicator that he didn't care much for. _All good things must come to an end. _And the end of his mating was near. He could feel it deep down, in his very soul.

He was going to lose his mate to the embrace of death soon.


	5. Chapter 5

Things were strained between Kagome and her family today.

How could they not be? They must blame her for everything that had happened thus far. _I'd be surprised if grandpa didn't call me a whore too and try purifying my body by bathing it in sacred sake as if I were possessed or something_. _Then again I wouldn't be terribly surprised if he decided to wait until I was asleep and set me and my bed on fire to purge me of all my sins._ Kagome thought to herself as she sat up in her childhood room wondering where she had gone wrong in her life when she heard her bedroom door open and turned her head to look at it and saw her mother standing there.

"Kagome," Yuki Higurashi started when she saw the look in her daughter's eyes and paused for a moment in alarm. She could see that she was starting to shut down. It was simply something that she usually did when she felt something particularly painful that she felt she couldn't handle. She'd done it several times before. The first time being when her father had died. After which Kagome had spent months in therapy just to help get her to function again.

Finally after several heartbeats she managed to find her voice and say, "Dear, contrary to what you are thinking right now- your grandfather and I aren't mad at you for trying to take care of things on your own. We understand that you didn't want to tell us what was really going on. Your grandfather is an old man, and stress usually does him in. And I know that you were simply trying to protect us. You've always been that way. In a lot of ways you remind me of your father. And I am proud of you, however this isn't just your fight anymore. I talked to Sango a little while ago and she told me the actual truth about the extent of the harassment you've been suffering."

"She told me about what those boys had been sending you. The sleazy clothes, the somewhat threatening letters, the panties stained with...their semen. She told me everything. Now since you didn't want to go to the police before and do something about it- I would like to go collect those items from your dorm room and take them to the police to file a report. Dear, things have gotten way out of hand and despite what you want right now- you _need_ to stand up to them and _make_ them stop. And you can't do that from in this room."

Kagome closed her eyes, feeling the beginnings of a headache starting as she looked away from her mom for a second before reluctantly nodding her head as she slowly stood up and walked over to where her mother was. And let her mother slip her arm around her shoulders and give her a slight one armed hug as she then said, "I'll be with you every step of the way and if we run into those stupid children, well- I've got a few things I would love to say to them and their families."

Kagome looked at her mom in slight surprise but didn't dare say anything. If he mom wanted to show those assholes that she wasn't as timid or kind as she was with her family, then power to her. Kagome hoped that she made the little shitheads cry.

God knew that they all deserved it for being such disgusting pigs. She thought as she and her mother walked downstairs and went to grab their jackets, and slip on their shoes.

Today was going to be terrible for her. But maybe by the end of it, things would be a bit better.

As the two slipped out of the house, Kagome spotted her grandfather sweeping some of the leaves off of the shrine steps and heard him say, "Give them hell girl." To her as she walked passed him, causing her to turn her head to look at him for a moment. Just long enough to see him stop his work to wink at her to show her that he was no longer upset about things and everything was forgiven.

Kagome felt her lips twitch slightly upward in a small smile as she started walking again.

Maybe her day was already looking a bit better.

* * *

Sesshomaru couldn't seem to_ sit_ nor _stand_ still for more than a second as he and his mate waited on the doctor to show up and say something about all of Kagura's tests. So instead he did what he always did when he was anxious. He paced.

Pace, pace, pace, pace, pace, pace- pace, pace- of course the fact that his mind connected his anxious pacing to the rhythm of the song, 'Shake your booty' never seemed to bode well for him since somewhere along the line of his pacing, he started doing just that. Subconsciously trying to calm himself by doing what he sort of enjoyed while making his nervous mate snort with almost uncontrollable laughter.

He'd developed this particular habit during the disco period.

He didn't know why, but doing it in times of distress simply made it easier for him to function and think more clearly. The side benefit of being able to make someone laugh was never an expected outcome, though in this situation it was greatly appreciated.

And naturally this was how the doctor found he and his mate.

He shaking his groove thing and his mate laying on her side on the examination table in her thin cotton gown, gasping for air. They both had to pull themselves together rather quickly when the doctor finally cleared his throat to let them both know that he was there.

Automatically Sesshomaru was across the room and seated next to his mate who was still laughing. Though a tad bit more softly now.

"What news do you have doctor?" Sesshomaru asked in his more authoritative tone. Which might have worked on the male, if he hadn't seen him acting like an absolute ninny just a few seconds prior.

The doctor laid his mate's file down on the small counter and then opened it so that he could look inside before sighing heavily. He often times hated his job. Especially at times like this. Kagura Taisho's tests had come back positive for a mutated strain of cancer.

It was one that they had no treatment for and most individuals that had it, tended to perish from it between six months to a year. However Kagura had apparently had this specific strain of cancer for far longer than anyone had anticipated.

She had had it for over a hundred years and still hadn't died. Probably due to the fact that she carried her mate's mating mark on her body. Up until recently, the mark had been holding the disease at bay, allowing the two to do whatever they did in their everyday lives. However he had a suspicion that the mark was beginning to weaken or fade. And if that were so then because of the backlash that was likely to occur, Kagura only had a few months, perhaps even a few weeks left to live.

"It isn't good news, I'm afraid. But before we get right into that- I wonder if Kagura can show us her mating mark?" The doctor asked curiously as he turned to face the two. Kagura pushed herself upright next to her mate, now that she had finally gotten a hold of herself, and nodded and then moved her gown aside from her neck a little bit, allowing both her mate and the doctor to see the half faded blue crescent moon mark.

Sesshomaru stared at the faded mark in abject horror as the doctor sighed and muttered, "I was afraid of that. Kagura, you have a mutated strain of cancer. Now most people who have it die within a very short time, however it appears as if thanks to your mating mark- you have had it for much, much longer. However with the mark fading, and your bond with your mate weakening...the backlash you will feel will be devastating. Instead of attacking one organ at a time, the cancer will spread with every beat of your heart until you die from the damages. You have a few weeks, maybe a few months. But that's it. There is no treatment for this strain. We can't even give you any pain medications to help make you comfortable because it would trick your body into functioning much longer than it should."

Both Kagura and Sesshomaru listened to the male speak, both feeling as if their world had just been destroyed and once the doctor was done, he gave them a sympathetic look and apologized again for not being of more help to them, and then left the room so that they could have some privacy.


	6. Chapter 6

Kagome and her mom didn't get home for several hours after picking up the stuff from school, plus her mom had decided to have a few 'words' with the school admins. Of course what she meant by 'words' was more like tell them if she and Sango got expelled because they literally let scum in their school...just because they belonged to wealthy families.

She _would_ be slapping them with a civil suit and dragging them to fucking court along with their chummy asshole friends and they're uneducated son's and while she was at it- she planned to inform the local media about their judgmental and _abusive_ treatment of her daughter after which, they would see if anyone in their right mind decided to let their precious little girl's come to school there for the new year.

To say that everyone was gobsmacked that her mother had the audacity to threaten them all- would be an understatement. But the coup de grace of the whole outstanding event was when she handed one of the admins the hospital files/police report that had been put on file about what had happened the night that Kagome had had to be taken to the hospital after being drugged.

Copies of which were handed to the father's still present, embarrassing them completely and utterly once they realized that their son's had fucked up bad. Especially since they were named as 'assailants' who had tried to drag Kagome away from Sango's side once the drug had kicked in.

The school had expelled the boys and just before the father's could leave the room, her mother had demanded a verbal apology for everything and everyone including the father of one of the boys, now expelled, for getting up in Kagome's face and calling her a vile name.

When the man bristled and started to say that he wasn't going to apologize to some fucking tart, her mother had then added the stipulation that he apologize- on his knees like he were giving a blow job.

Even Kagome's eyes had widened at this as she stared at her mother in almost slack jawed disbelief and after several minutes of hesitating and swearing, the man finally dropped to his knees and apologized for what he had said.

To which her mother replied, "Do you like sucking my cock, you fucking_ slut_." And then grabbed Kagome's hand and walked out of the room. Leaving everyone still present in stunned silence.

Once the two women were outside of the building, Kagome had looked at her mom and gotten a weirdly grim looking smile from her mother before the woman that had birthed her had flat out stated, "I'm just getting started dear."

* * *

Sesshomaru rested on his knees on the floor in front of his mate with his head in her lap, letting her run her fingers through his long silky hair as his heart ached for his mate. "This could be a good thing," Kagura said gently as she rubbed a finger around the shell of one of his pointed ears. "I know that we have been mated for a long time, but you've never at any point been in love with me the way that one loves a mate. And then there is the whole family thing, you've always wanted a large family of sons and daughters. Your breeder can give you that."

"It isn't the same."

"I know. But you have tried for decades to get me pupped. And once it never happened, I began to realize that either I wasn't meant to carry your pups or I was ill in some way that prevented me from becoming pupped."

Sesshomaru sighed, he hated it when she brought up such a touchy subject for the two of them. But he knew that she needed to speak of this. So he let her be.

"I always hated knowing that I let you down, but this is a blessing in disguise. With your beast picking a breeder for you, you won't have to worry about any pesky teenage pups running around making her life a living hell. Also, you'll have someone with you when I finally-"

"Stop. You will not speak in such a way," He said, his tone was light, gentle even. However it carried far more weight to it than even he had expected. "First off, any pups of this Sesshomaru's would be far too well behaved to cause any issues. An second of all...I simply do not like your insinuation otherwise." He said with a haughty sniff.

Kagura sniggered softly at her mate's words.

That was so like her Sesshomaru. She hoped that he never changed.

She was quiet for a moment as her hand stilled against his hair, and he lifted his head to look at her. "Do you plan to go looking for your breeder soon?"

"Hn. Do you need anything before I leave?"

Kagura thought for a moment before shaking her head no as he slowly got up off of the floor and said, "Well too bad. I'm going to go catch you some rabbits anyways." And then sped off before she could say anything. Leaving Kagura sitting on their couch hoping that that was something about him that never changed either.

His answer to all the world's problems. Hunting down helpless rabbits.

She was sure that his breeder would get a few laughs out of that particular habit of his the first time she decided to cry in front of him since it was his weird, guy-ish answer to everything.

For example, if the TV broke- he went hunting for rabbits. If he had a bad day- he went hunting for rabbits. When she was on her cycle- he went hunting for rabbits, but brought her some nice chocolates as well. If he forgot her birthday...she feared that the rabbit population would drop dramatically. But since he had never forgotten such important occasions- perhaps she had little to worry about.

She felt Sesshomaru's youki as he re entered the house and closed the door and walked into the living room holding two dead rabbits by the ears and a tiny snow white little bunny carefully in his other hand.

He laid his kills at her feet and then carefully placed the little baby bunny in her lap and then leaned in and kissed her forehead before telling her to have fun. and place the baby outside in the back yard once she was done with it so that it could hop off. And then he straightened his spine was gone again.


	7. Chapter 7

Once he left his home, Sesshomaru used his demon speed to get him to the corner market where he had first met his little breeder in the hopes of seeing her around there somewhere. However when he caught a fresher version of her scent on the wind, he surmised that she must have just left and began tracking her down in earnest.

So when he finally managed to catch up to her and saw her walking next to a woman some odd years her senior, he became curious and sped up a little bit so that he was walking several feet behind her and the other female.

"I can't believe you did that to that guy. To make him actually get on his knees and apologize only to ask him if he liked sucking your cock... _Unbelievable_." His little breeder said in a stunned tone that caused the woman next to her to snigger as Sesshomaru felt his eye brows disappear somewhere underneath his bangs.

"Well, he did call you a whore, and a little tart as well. So why not give him a taste of the humiliation that you felt not only at his hands but the hands of his son and friends?" The woman said in an amused tone while Sesshomaru's eyes widened in disbelief while his beast chimed in, **Grrr. Someone hassle and embarrass bitch- someone pay!**

_Calm yourself and let me listen. _Sesshomaru murmured to his beast as he continued to listen to the two females converse. If someone had truly been embarrassing her and calling his little breeder names then it was no damned wonder that she had tried to unman him.

In her eyes, he had probably looked just as jerk-ish as the one/one's doing those things to her.

"Well, maybe things at school now will be a bit better."

"I should expect so considering that those damn boys got expelled for all of their stalkerish harassment and crap." The older woman said, causing Sesshomaru to almost stop walking and turn around. If his little breeder had been harassed and stalked and such- he certainly didn't want his person lumped in with the ones responsible for her distress. But at the same time he couldn't exactly back down either.

_Aragh!_ Where was a telephone pole to slam his head into when he needed it? He wondered.

**Thirty two paces back, where you passed it. **His beast chimed in, nearly causing him to turn a full circle for a moment before he straightened himself back out and began walking again.

He wasn't sure how long he walked behind the two women, listening to them make small talk. Especially since once they started talking food- he sort of tuned them out and wondered if he should try asking his little breeder out to dinner so that they could speak. however the way that she was speaking to the woman net to her as well as the way that she had been treated by others gave him pause.

Mostly because he thought that if he should attempt to ask her out to dinner, she would feel uncomfortable being around him. Perhaps if he could meet her family or some of her friends, he could ask them to come with him. He knew of at least a dozen nice places to go to eat all within walking distance of where he was currently. Each place was well known and had wonderful food and drinks.

Perhaps it was something that he could run by one of her family members once he met them. It was after all the polite thing to do, especially when he was planning to take one of their females from them and pup her. Hopefully with the approval and blessings of her family.

"I think we should have a seafood hotpot for dinner. with a side of steak and salad. What do you think Kagome? Is it doable?" The other female asked, causing Sesshomaru's ears to twitch slightly at the sound of his breeder's name.

Kagome.

It was a nice name.

**It means bird in a cage. **

Okay, so maybe it wasn't such a nice name. He wasn't entirely sure why her family would give her such a name, but he didn't question it for long. He was too busy rolling it around on his tongue under his breath. Which was just loud enough for him to hear what he was doing, and not the two females.

Finally the two turned and started up some stairs, and Sesshomaru stopped walking for a moment to watch them, taking note of where they were going. It was a local shrine. One of the oldest and most honored in the city. If this was the place that his breeder called home, then procuring her would prove more difficult than merely winning her over.

Especially since girls raised at shrines usually had such outstanding morals that being a breeder to a demon would cause her to be scorned by her blood kin unless he could win their approval in his endeavor. Deciding that he had had enough for today, he then decided on his next step.

Before going home, he'd go by a local florist and get some nice and tasteful flowers to send here to his Kagome. One floral arrangement with a card of apology for...causing her to injure him. And a few more to show her that he was genuinely interested in her and that they needed to sit down somewhere on neutral ground and speak to one another.

Walking away from the shrine grounds, he completely missed Yuki standing at the top of the stairs, watching him with an oddly calculating look on her face.

She had noticed the demon walking behind herself and her daughter out of the corner of her eye earlier, but hadn't thought anything of him until he had followed them both to the shrine. Now as a general rule, most demons steered clear of holy places, such as the place that she and her family called home.

Unless of course there was something that the demon was interested in on the grounds.

And after a moment or so of searching her mind, she recalled what Kagome had said about a demon invoking a verbal claim on her as his breeder. Which wasn't truly something to be alarmed of, really. To most humans, being claimed as a breeder was a sort of weird compliment to the female in question.

Aside from being taken as a demon's mate- it was one of the more decent compliments. Plus a breeder, much like a mate- couldn't be stolen away or taken by force. So she didn't need to worry that the male would come for her daughter in the dark of the night and break into their home to steal her from her bed or anything like that. Nor would he dare to rape her.

Breeders, even human ones, were treated as a precious commodity among other demons. They were treated gently, and carefully lest the male in question should injure the one he had claimed- thereby losing all right to her.

If the males was showing up now...then it meant that he would begin to make a move on Kagome soon. Huffing slightly at the position that she and her family were now in thanks to her daughter's near constant unwanted attention from the opposite se, she couldn't help but wonder what kind of move the male would make to win them all over.


	8. Chapter 8

The next day, Sesshomaru spent some much needed time with his mate while the floral bouquet's that he had picked out for his breeder were sent out to her home. One delivery at a time.

Now Sesshomaru would be the first to admit that he had gone just a little bit overboard. After all one or two bouquets meant 'I like you and would like to know you better'.

Twenty or thirty just meant 'I like you lots, and either I've done something stupid like kill you or knock you up against your will- sorry bout that' so naturally around the time of the first delivery, he wished he were a fly on the wall of his little Kagome's home.

He wondered if she was confused or perhaps even pleased by the floral arrangements that he had sent her.

* * *

Confused, Kagome was terribly, terribly confused when she woke up the next morning to find a _huge_ frigging floral arrangement made up of white tiger lilies, blue hyacinth, pink bachelor buttons, pale yellow colored baby's breath, and ivy in a nice big crystal vase with a bow around the top of it, in the middle of her mother's kitchen.

"Good morning dear. Did you sleep well, last night?" Yuki asked as Kagome stepped a little bit further into the room, eyeing the floral arrangement as if she expected it to come alive and try to eat her or something.

"I slept fine, mom. What's with the floral nightmare?"

"Hn? Oh! It would appear that the demon that made a verbal claim on you the other day managed to not only track you down but learn your name."

Kagome looked at her with wide horrified eyes as she said in a disbelieving tone, "You're kidding."

"Nope. He left a note of apology for you."

"You read it?" Kagome asked suspiciously, displeased that she finally got rid of stupid boys only to gain...a demon. A persistent one at that. "Honestly, why doesn't anyone seem to get much less understand that 'no' means fucking no?" She growled out as she inched her way towards her mother, still eyeing the flowers as if they could come alive at any given second and try to eat them.

It was such an comically odd reaction to the demon's attentions that Yuki had a hard time not laughing at her daughter's current plight. In fact the only thing that seemed to hold her back from doing just that was the fact that she knew that her daughter didn't want such attentions from anyone.

After being harassed for a year or so, she would imagine that Kagome was in no rush whatsoever to gain the attentions of _anyone_ of the male persuasion.

"Gimme the card." Kagome demanded once she finally reached her side. Yuki picked the card up and handed it to her daughter and watched her as her eyes scanned the card.

**Dear Kagome, **

**I am sending these flowers as an apology to you for coming across as a creep. It was not my intention to upset you with my claim. **

**Sessho**

"You have got to be fucking kidding me." Kagome practically snarled as she tossed the card in the trash can and then picked up the vase of flowers and began walking towards the kitchen door.

"What are you doing dear?" Yuki asked, knowing damn well that her daughter intended to toss the flowers outside somewhere.

"Taking out the trash."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Why is that mom?" Kagome growled at her, barely able to hold onto her temper as her mother smothered a laugh behind one of her hands.

"This Sessho, person would most likely be terribly displeased if you refuse to keep his carefully hand picked gift. Especially when there was an apology attached to it," Kagome glared as Yuki rolled her eyes at her daughter's antics and simply said. "It would be considered a blow to his ego and would upset him if you got rid of his gift. Especially when he has made a verbal claim on your person."

"Ask me if I care abut upsetting him when it's obvious that he doesn't care about upsetting me." Kagome snarled as she flung open the kitchen door and vanished outside with the flowers. Causing Yuki to sigh.

_Such a problematic child, my Kagome is._ Yuki thought in exasperation. Inviting trouble without knowing what she was truly doing of late seemed to be her daughter's forte. She just hoped that the demon Sessho wouldn't come around too quickly to speak with Kagome and the rest of them otherwise he would notice the flowers missing.

Once Kagome returned from dumping the flowers out in the yard somewhere, she returned to the house with the vase and set it on the kitchen counter with a heavy 'thunk'. After which things seemed to settle down and go as normally as possible until about noon when Kagome was helping her mother fi everyone some food for lunch when there was a knock at the front door.

Both she and Kagome paused in mid action and looked at each other as her grandfather got up from his seat at the table and went to answer the door. And returned a few moments later with a slightly smaller floral arrangement of pink calla lilies, and blue bachelor button's and some green colored babies breath.

To say that Kagome was pissed again, would be an understatement as she snatched the flowers from her grandfather and went and started to dump them out when her mother forbid her to continue to get rid of the flowers sent by the demon.

Angering her daughter to the point where she slammed the vase down on the kitchen counter, chipping it badly, before turning on her heel and going up to her bedroom.

And ten minutes later, she came back down dressed in a pair of jeans, an cornflower blue and black sweater with butterfly print on the front, her hair was styled nicely and she was wearing heeled boots and some makeup. She didn't even stop to tell anyone where she was going, she simply left the house.

(**************************************************************************************************************************)

Sesshomaru left his home around noon or so, after Kagura finally kicked him out so that she could have some 'me' time without him underfoot. Apparently his attentions were starting to irk his mate some. Despite the fact that she knew why he had decided to spend some time with her.

However as she had continuously pointed out today, he couldn't afford to waste time with his breeder. He needed to go and sit himself down with her and _talk_ to her. So that was what he was going to do since he had been forbidden to return home until he had.

At least he had his cell phone and his car with him this time, just in case he _actually_ had to stay away from home for a while. So after parking a ways from the shrine and getting out of his car, he noticed the scent of his breeder nearby and automatically moved towards it to find her standing at the bottom of the shrine steps with a cell to her ear.

"Sango, are you busy? Yes- right now. Okay, can you meet me at the usual place. I wanna get some iced cream and talk about something. Yeah, yeah- thanks, bye." Kagome said as she hung up her cell and looked both ways before quickly crossing the street.

Sesshomaru was quick to move after her, though he almost got hit by a few cars along the way. But he somehow managed to avoid any real injury, though he couldn't say the same for the guy that had actually clipped him. Half the right side of his car was caved in.

Sesshomaru did however pause, somewhat briefly to at least hand the guy his business card and tell him to call him there to set up a payment to have his medical bills and car taken care of before he scurried off after Kagome.

And he had to say, his little breeder moved faster than he had anticipated while he was dicking around with the driver of the messed up car, she had somehow managed to get three blocks ahead of him and he only just managed to find her when she came to a stop at an ice cream shop.

He skidded to a stop outside of the building and quickly took note of his breeder standing in line with another female, the two of them speaking with one another with ease as he entered the shop and moved to get in line behind them only to almost get shoved out of the way by a male that obviously had a death wish since his eyes were on his breeder.

So Sesshomaru did what any demon would do- he slunk up behind the male and as he was opening his mouth to say something stupid that very well could get him killed by the inu's claws, he placed his hand over the male's mouth and dragged him back away from the line and into the men's room where he then spun him around and slammed him into a wall and snarled at him threateningly.

"Do not speak to either of the females that you approached."

The guy looked at him funny, though it somewhat piqued Sesshomaru's curiosity as to why the male wasn't pissing his pants when he finally said, "Ah, you must be the demon that Kagome's mother mentioned when I called her earlier. Hello, my name is Miroku. I'm dating Kagome's friend Sango, who is the person I was going to greet when you grabbed me. Are you still upset? Because if not I'd like to be let go of now." The male said as he gently tapped Sesshomaru's wrist, causing him to release him as he just stood there blinking at him.

_What?_ Sesshomaru thought as his mind finally kicked in and he thought, _What the hell just happened?!_


	9. Chapter 9

Forty five minutes later-

Sesshomaru found himself sitting across Miroku underneath the sink with his knees drawn up to his chest as they spoke about how his beast had chosen Kagome, and how she (obviously) hadn't liked his verbal claim and tried to unman him as well as what he had overheard once he had come looking for her again and such.

Miroku had been able to fill him in a little bit more about the harassment Kagome had received for the past year.

Apparently the harassment at her school began when she accidentally got locked out of her dorm room in nothing but a towel. And of course, rich boys being the egotistical assholes that they are, a group of them had come along and started picking on her thinking that she had locked herself out of her dorm room to gain their attention. And naturally couldn't take a hint.

Things got so bad that by the time Kagome was saved by the male across from him and his girlfriend, the males in question had been holding Kagome down- after tearing her towel from her- and one of them was in the process of attempting to stuff his dick where it didn't belong while the others stroked themselves before they each got their asses handed to them, and Sango took a distraught Kagome into her dorm room.

When Sesshomaru had shaken himself from his shocked stupor long enough to demand where the hell some help was, Miroku had merely shrugged and replied that the school and the people in it seemed to think themselves better to everyone else.

Anyone that wasn't one of them was usually singled out for hate crimes, rape and such anyways. To them, as long as it wasn't one of their own- it was as if the person being hurt didn't matter.

Almost as if the fact that they were harming another human being didn't even seem to register with them.

To say that Sesshomaru was more than a little bit displeased to hear this, would be an understatement. His eyes, slowly began to bleed a pink-ish color to show that his beast was soaking up just as much of the information as he himself was, and neither of them were growing pissed at what they were hearing.

Finally Sesshomaru sighed and his eyes went back to normal, slowly, very slowly- but it still happened. After which Miroku asked why demons called certain females 'breeders'. He even went on to state that it sounded very...questionable as far as terminology went.

To which Sesshomaru explained, "The term breeder, is used for a female capable of giving birth to healthy young. When a demon male chooses a breeder- it is based half on scent and half on instinct. A breeder's role in a demon household is to act as both a mother and in many cases a mate to the male that has chosen her. For a demon male to use the female only for her body and ability to birth offspring, and then take them and cast his breeder aside is the worst and most dishonorable thing a demon male can do. Especially when the female could wind up shunned by both human's and demon's alike. For something of this magnitude to take place, the female would have to do something terrible like purposely cause the death of one of the demon male's offspring. And before being cast from his home, he will brand her as a whore so that all can see that she is good for nothing but spreading her legs for males. It is a punishment that is the greatest of cruelties."

"I see. But what if the offspring's death was an accident? Human behaviors differ greatly from a demon's."

"I myself have never been fond of the practice. If the death is an accident, then the female will simply be removed from her children until the cause can be isolated. Once it is assured that nothing of the sort will happen again, she will once again be brought back into the male's home to be with her children."

"What if it happened because the female in question is mentally ill?"

Sesshomaru blinked at him for a moment as his question took a moment to register with him before he replied, "Then it is the male's duty to see to it that she has the help that she needs. Leaving her as she is, just because of it being troublesome in some way- would be foolish. Because then the male would not only lose his offspring but he would lose his breeder as well... What was the purpose of that question?"

"I'm merely covering all of the bases a bit." Miroku said.

"In what way?"

"To put things simply, after what happened in the hallway as well as the escalation in harassment, Kagome inevitably reached a point where she tried to kill herself. She cut her wrists, but the wounds were too shallow to be life threatening. She started taking antidepressants after the episode to keep from doing something stupid like that again, however she tends not to take the medicine like she should. Depending on what is happening at the time, she tends to forget about taking them."

"O-Oh." Sesshomaru said as his mind took in that little bit of information. That coupled with the near rape and harassment she had suffered would make procuring Kagome as his breeder a great deal more difficult seeing as she probably didn't want any male's attentions right this moment.

But again, his beast had chosen, and he had no choice but to follow where it led him. If he was ever to have a family of his own, he couldn't back down. No matter how much his logical mind told him that for now it was the best move that he could make.

Perhaps he should try approaching Kagome again at a different time? Maybe if he told Kagura what he had found out, she would let him come home to speak to her? He felt almost desperate for advice at this point.

Miroku seemed to sense the conflict in his mind, and reached out to pat his clawed hand in an odd display of comfort, drawing Sesshomaru's citrine colored eyes to him as he asked, "You think of her like a sister, don't you?"

"Ever since the day I met her."

"Could I think of you in the same way?"

"I'd be offended if you didn't. Everyone else but Sango does." Miroku said honestly with a slight shrug. Sesshomaru gave him a little bit of a strained smile before saying,

"Then brother, I need some advice about a girl. How can I help her get passed what was done to her and win her affections?"

"The only way you can. Be patient with her, and treat her well."


	10. Chapter 10

"Tell me more about how all of this breeder business came to be?"

"You mean the demon population decline?" Sesshomaru asked for clarification.

"No my brother, I need more _personal_ details. You're a stunning specimen of a man, even if you are a demon. I'm assuming that your wealthy, well educated, perhaps even have a nice home and place of work. Why exactly do you need a breeder anyways? Surly you have a lover or something that can take care of such needs."

"I...have a mate-" Sesshomaru started and paused for a moment when Miroku's whole demeanor changed and he found himself on the receiving end of an icy glare before he quickly said, "It's not what you think or anything! I mean yes I have a mate, but...she's got a rare mutated strain of cancer and only has a short time left. A few months, perhaps a year from now and I'll be alone..." Miroku's glare softened somewhat, but only just so. "We had an arranged mating. So love wasn't really involved. In fact the first few hundred years or so, we both attempted to kill one another to free ourselves of our mating bond. She would poison me. I would knock her unconscious and tie her to really heavy stones and toss her in the deepest body of water I could find."

"My father and mother both found the whole situation hysterical. It took us quite a while, but finally be slowly became friends. I only take her to my bed to strengthen our mating mark every few hundred years. But that isn't an option anymore because of her state of health. We've been mated for nine hundred years. And while I wanted pups much sooner- she worried due to the amount of blood shed and wars. If we had son's, they would be soldiers and would die by the sword, or as prisoners of war. If we had daughter's, they would be used to strengthen political standing and make alliances."

"It was not how we wanted our pups to live. So we decided to wait. It was only about a hundred years or so ago that she finally decided that she was ready to try. But no matter what we did- my seed would not take. So with medicine making it's advances as it is, we chose to wait a little bit longer to see what the problem was. We were told yesterday by one of her doctors... It is, devastating news for a mated pair to hear. Even more so when they have been together for as long as we have."

"So when my beast awakened due to Kagome's scent and urged me to find her- I knew...I knew that I would be losing my mate and friend of the past nine hundred years, and I would be taking another into my home to replace her. I do not know your friend as I would like, but when a demon's beast picks someone to bring into one's home- there is a certain amount of information given by scent alone. She smelled beautiful. Strong, healthy- and something that I couldn't quite place."

"If I could win Kagome's affections, I would treat her well. I am not a hateful male. Nor am I dishonorable as having a mate implies. I would wait to take her to my bed, until after my mate had passed so that I could offer her my name and protection as my new mate if she wished it. I would care for her, be her friend, protector and provider- she would never have to worry about anything again if she didn't want too. I would give her the best of care, see that she finished school, if anyone ever harassed her again- or threatened her or our pups- _I would destroy them. _I would give her an monthly allowance-" Miroku gave him another look, not quite a glare but a slightly pointed look that quickly had him backtracking.

"Sorry! That sounds like I'm trying to buy her, but I'm not. The allowance is to allow her more financial independence. She would have her own money to do with what she wished, and she would not have to seek me for my permission. It'd be a substantial amount too, just in case she wanted to simply give some of it away. I would even help her family out if they needed it. Medical bills, restoration of their home, repairs, and other things- they wouldn't have to worry about any of it."

"I also would not keep her from them nor they from her. They are her family and to do so would be cruel and make me seem like I was of questionable intent towards her. Plus our pups would partially belong to her family as well, and nothing would please me more than to be able to open my front door to them and greet her...mother? father? And everyone else as my own family." Sesshomaru said with a gentle expression on his face.

"That all sounds very well. The fact that you have no intention of using her or making her the other woman while your mate lives is also...a _relief_ to me. Once Kagome is made aware of all of this, it will be a relief to her as well. Especially since Kagome is saving herself for marriage." Miroku said as he scratched his cheek.

"That's very nice of her."

"Well she comes from a very old and distinguished family."

"Ah. Anymore questions?"

"Just one. If she consents, would you be able to love Kagome?"

Sesshomaru was silent for a heartbeat or so before finally saying, "My beast would not have chosen someone that I would be incapable of loving. Not if we wish things to work out."

"So that is a yes then?"

"Yes."

"Sweet, trade numbers with me." Miroku said as he dug his cell phone out and muttered something about wanting to go grab an iced cream once they crawled out from under the bathroom sink.

Sesshomaru fished out his own phone and handed it to the male as he mentally conceded that iced cream right now would be very nice. Maybe he'd grab some too.


	11. Chapter 11

When Sesshomaru had finally left the ice cream shop with his frozen treat in his clawed hands- he'd had to do so quickly due to the fact that his Kagome had noticed him and all but jumped up from her seat and begun to move towards him an and aggressive manner when Miroku- his new brother, had kindly cut her off and kept her and the other female present distracted.

And once in his car again, he'd eaten his ice cream, he then dug out his phone and called Kagura- asking if he could come home since he needed girl advice. He'd seen Miroku fondle his girlfriend's ass and get slapped before he had left the ice cream shop and as sound as his previous advice had been, he'd feel a little bit better getting some advice from someone who actually seemed to know what the hell they were doing.

So Kagura was his safest bet since she wouldn't lie, sugar coat things and would simply be brutally honest to the point where it would probably drive him mad. But it didn't keep him from going home to get her advice anyways. And just before he got home, he managed to come across some deer crossing the road to graze and mowed one down with his car since he didn't feel like chasing it.

Kagura would probably get pissed at him for using his car as an instrument of death. But he didn't exactly feel like getting out and frolicking in the woods just to catch the damned thing.

So once it was hit by his car and injured, he slowly got out of the vehicle and walked over to the bloody and thrashing animal and gave it a quick death so that it didn't suffer even more- of course that was _before_ he even noticed the baby doe standing frozen just a few feet away, smelling of abject terror.

Blinking at it, he looked back and forth between it and his latest kill before mentally kicking himself.

Goddamn it. Why hadn't he paid closer attention to the small group of animals and instead gone after a nice buck? He wondered as he stood up and slipped his jacket off and took several moments to chase the baby doe around before finally catching it and carefully wrapping it in his jacket and heading to the car.

He could smell milk on it's breath and knew that it wouldn't survive without it's mother unless it had someone to take care of it. Much like the baby bunny he had handed to his mate the last time he had hunted.

Kagura might be a little bit angry with him for orphaning yet another baby animal, but even though he had killed the little bunny/doe's mother's, the least he could do was ensure their survival. Which was why his back yard had been turned into a small zoo where he and his mate took the time to raise the baby orphaned animals.

The doe would do well there. He had a few other deer in his mini zoo that would take to it easily. So it's not like it would be lonely. And he and Kagura would divide their time between it to make sure that it was fed and such until it was weaned.

Placing the baby doe in the back seat of his car, he carefully removed himself from it and shut the door before it could make a run for it and then went to collect his kill. Which he put in his trunk.

After that he got back into his car and drove off towards his home. He'd bet anything that Kagura was standing at the front door waiting on him. And of course, he was right. The moment he pulled up to the house, he could see Kagura sitting on their front step, with her chin in her palms- looking more bored than the time they had opened a bed and breakfast in the mountains.

And that had been pretty damn boring despite the two or three people that had stopped by to stay at their place every ten or so years. In fact after fifty years of absolute boredom- they had had to leave the place behind when Kagura had finally lost her temper and killed one of their patrons.

Getting out of the car to go collect the baby deer, he heard Kagura call out in a pissy tone. "Where were you? I waited and waited for over an hour now. I've got the pot ready for some rabbit-" She stopped speaking when he carefully placed the baby deer in her lap and simply looked at it wide eyed for a moment before it tried to get up and run off.

Of course it didn't manage to get far between him and his mate chasing it down. But the point was that it tried. And once it was caught, Kagura went ahead and took it inside and placed it in the downstairs bathroom so that it couldn't cause any trouble for them while Sesshomaru hauled in his kill and took it straight to the kitchen where he grabbed the special set of knives that he kept for gutting and dressing big game and then stepped back outside where he hung the carcass upside down from a tree branch and began taking it apart.

By the time he was finished and set aside the fur of the animal to dry out, he and his mate had a good portion of deer meat to place in the freezer and some set aside for their dinner today since he imagined his talk with Kagura would probably take quite some time.

Collecting their dinner for today, he made his way back into the house to find Kagura making some coco for them both to drink as he set some of the meat in a frying pan and then walked back outside to grab the rest so that it could be wrapped up and put away.

Once he was finished with that, he washed his hands and began readying the meat for their dinner to be seasoned and cooked inbetween taking drinks of his coco while Kagura got herself settled at the table and waited for him to start talking.

"Okay Sessho, I've waited long enough. What is it you need my help with?" Kagura finally asked.

So he launched into the whole story, starting with how he had followed Kagome to the iced cream shop and thought that Miroku was about to make a move on either her or her friend and his reaction (the whole slamming the poor guy against the men's bathroom wall and snarling in his face) Mirokus introduction, his freakout- the forty something minutes it took for him to finally calm down and how the two of them wound up crawling up underneath the bathroom sink, facing each other and talking.

He told Kagura everything that Miroku had relayed to him about Kagome's near rape, her depression and attempted suicide, the medications, how she had been labelled as a slut, whore and a few other things. Miroku's questions, his replies to them. How they had traded numbers and now he was home.

And by the time he finished and waited for his mate to respond, she merely sighed and muttered that while he still hadn't managed to speak to the girl herself- he was at least making some sort of weird progress. And that knowing such things _were_ necessary if he didn't want to find his ass in a sling with the girl and her family.

However she wasn't sure as to what to say to her mate about wooing the female.

From what she understood of everything already, he was basically screwed because they were mated. She was saving herself for marriage as well, was yet another issue. Not that Kagura didn't think that was pretty damned cute.

It wasn't often that a male like her mate came across such a rare specimen here in this era. However since that was the case, she likely wasn't going to like Sesshomaru's attentions towards her since she just got out of that bad situation with the bastards that couldn't take no for an answer, among other things.

She also wasn't likely to want anything to do with her mate once she found out that he was mated. Especially since she would technically be the other woman in the household.

If Sesshomaru took her to his bed before her death the girl would be labeled as a whore again by those who didn't understand demon culture. Her own family may even shun her. And Kagura was certain that Sesshomaru wouldn't want that for the girl since it would make her life more difficult than it needed to be already.

He may be a big bad business man at work, but outside of work he was like a walking, talking, sugar cookie complete with frosting and sprinkles.

If she knew her mate any- she would bet that he was intending to try courting the girl and wouldn't bother with taking her to his bed until he could offer her something more than simply a place in his home as a companion to him and mother of his pups. He would offer her a full mating so that he could give her everything.

It was a nice move, and went a long way towards letting the girl know that he wasn't expecting anything short term from her.


	12. Chapter 12

In the end, the only things that Kagura could come up with were to offer the girl a human marriage to bind her to her mate legally in the eyes of the humans to save her reputation, and simply wait until she were gone to fully mate her. And of course, she decided to go and meet this girl for herself.

Much to her mate's utter shock and disbelief, he had been banned from meeting with the girl until given prior notice from Kagura herself. Dinner was quiet afterwards, especially with her mate pouting over being banned from seeing his chosen breeder, but really- for the moment, until Kagura could maybe tell the girl a little bit about demon culture then this really was for the best if he didn't want to be lumped in with the poor girl's previous abusers.

After dinner, Kagura fed the baby deer and then took it outside and placed it in the pin with the other baby deer and then went back inside and decided to bathe.

Not long after that she curled up in the bed that she sometimes shared with her mate when she had nightmares or simply needed to warm up her feet using Sesshomaru's butt as her toe warmer. Which was always amusing to her since he tended to squirm and growl in a comical fashion, and sometime later began to drift off.

She had a big day tomorrow, especially if she was going to weasel the girl's current address out of her mate. And knowing the way that he had been pouting earlier- he wasn't going to give up the information freely.

She was going to have to do something drastic like hook a car battery up to his nipples or something. He'd look like he had been struck by lightning for a few days, but he'd give the information up faster than most could blink.

Sometime during the night while she slept, Sesshomaru had come upstairs to check on her and made sure that she was comfortable by tucking her back in after she had kicked off the blanket and sheets only to find that Kagura was running a small fever.

Knowing that the doctor had told him that such things were normal in human's and demon's who had certain types of cancer- he felt an odd ache in the vicinity of his chest and carefully checked his mating mark, noting that it was even more faded than it had been a few days ago.

He sat down on the floor next to the bed and scrubbed his face with his hands and took a moment or so to calculate how much time she had left. His estimate, coupled with his knowledge of the symptoms, and the even more faded mating mark- let him know that Kagura possibly had only a few weeks, a month or so at the most left.

_No point in wasting time. She wouldn't like it if she were to leave me to my own vices_. _My mate would be most_ _displeased with me if she perished and a week later I joined her because I had done something stupid like starve to death or trip over some dirty clothing and fall down the stairs..._ He thought as he sat there quietly for a length of time before finally removing himself from the bedroom in the early morning hours so that he could leave the house and save his ass from whatever weird torture she had been dreaming of putting him through.

However he made sure to leave her a note telling her what she would have tortured him for and then he grabbed his jacket, wallet and keys and left thinking that maybe it would be safest for him to stay away for the day.

Maybe he could go to work and make sure that no one had burned the building down or started rumors of his untimely demise. Yeah, that sounded like a plan. And while he was out- he'd grab some food.

The moment his presence couldn't be sensed anymore by Kagura's subconscious mind, her eyes slowly opened and she found herself sitting up in bed glowering at the far wall of the bedroom. She knew that her dumb mate had just scurried off somewhere to save his hide, however upon looking at her bedside table, she noticed the note laying there in Sesshomaru's hand writing and picked it up and carefully read it.

**Kagura- **

**Don't think I am not aware that you intend to do me bodily harm for information on where my breeder can be found. Here is her name and address. Dress warmly, dearest. It is very cool out today and the wind isn't going to be good for your health. **

**Call me if you need anything. Until then, I'm going into hiding. ** **See you later today. And have fun with Kagome. **

**She's a very interesting human, so I think you may actually enjoy making friends with her. **

He didn't bother signing the note since the two of them were the only ones living in the house at the moment. He did however scribble a little doodle of a flower at the bottom. Which was so typical of her mate.

He couldn't tell her that he loved her like a male loves a female, or even give her scribbled and slightly deformed hearts- which were his forte- but he could give her scribbled flowers in abundance.

_He is such a weird guy_. She thought to herself as she crawled out of bed and went to pull out her clothes for the day and shower. She had a lot to do today- starting with beginning to remove her things from the house so that her mate would not cling to her memory too tightly once she was gone.

Perhaps she could give a few pieces of her jewelry to the girl, Kagome. Stuff like her pearls, sapphires and a few other choice pieces. Including her platinum diamond and sapphire jewelry. Her engagement ring, and wedding band- she figured that if Kagome didn't wish to use them then perhaps one of her and Sesshomaru's daughter's might.

She also needed to get rid of her cosmetics, perfumes, and a good portion of her clothing. But she was keeping her shoes. The damn things would be buried with her if she had anything to say about it.

After she had showered and dressed and went about clearing out as much of her stuff as she could without exhausting herself, after which she then loaded everything into her car and climbed in and turned the ignition and backed out of the driveway and headed towards the shrine where her mate's chosen breeder was living.


	13. Chapter 13

The moment that Kagura reached the top of the shrine steps, she all but collapsed onto the ground panting as she looked back at the some odd hundred and something steps that she had just climbed up and_ glared_ at them. There was no way in fucking hell she was walking back down those irksome things. She wasn't a damned monkey! She didn't even like long walks. She much preferred to plant her butt somewhere nice and scenic and grow some damned roots.

Still she had known the moment that she got to the shrine her mate had mentioned in his note that she was in trouble. It wasn't hard to figure out. Not with all of those flipping steps in view. However as irritated and tired as she was after her...strenuous bought of unwanted, and _unnecessary_ bit of exercise- she was happy to finally be done with the accursed steps for now.

Now all she had to do was find...

She turned her head towards the house located just behind the shrine, and noted that there was a young woman just stepping out of the house wearing a pastel peach colored shirt with little white and pale purple flowers embroidered around the neckline of it. A pair of skinny jeans, some ankle boots with fur around the top of them, and small three inch heels and a waist length jacket.

The girl looked, well pretty was too tame a word for how she looked even with only the smallest hint of lip gloss and blush adorning her face. And her hair! It was long, that much she could tell. However it was up in a twist style akin to Kagura's own with little wisps framing her face.

And her eyes! They were a brilliant and lovely shade of blue that was so dark it was damn near violet.

Dear gods- how her mate had managed to hold himself back from jumping her bones (if this girl was in fact his chosen breeder) was beyond her. However if this female was Kagome, then she suddenly found herself with a newfound respect for her mate's iron like control.

The poor male should be nominated for sainthood...despite his bad case of blue balls.

The young woman saw her sitting there just at the top of the steps and froze up for a second as she looked her over. Almost as if she were trying to access her condition before speaking. Finally when she did speak, Kagura decided that Sesshomaru couldn't have this girl- she was going to be her girlfriend and she didn't share. Besides it wasn't often that she met a female attractive enough to turn her head and give her the giggles.

"Um, are you okay?"

Oh damn her voice was beautiful too...

"Marry me." Kagura said without thinking and upon realizing what she had blurted out quickly blushed and slapped her hands over her mouth as the girl blinked at her before asking,

"W-What?"

Kagura slowly lowered her hands from her mouth and cleared her throat as she gave a somewhat nervous looking smile and said, "Sorry. Bad joke. I'm fine. Just a little unused to the number of steps I had to climb."

"Oh. Okay then."

"My name is Kagura. What's your's?"

"Oh. Uh...Kagome."

"Oh! What a pretty name!" Kagura said causing the girl to blush slightly before she then asked, "Well, Kagome, would you mind being a dear and helping me up? I still kind of can't feel my legs so good."

"Oh, yeah okay. One second and I'll have you up." Kagome said as she moved closer to the somewhat strange demon woman, and knelt down next to her and took note of how thin she was and carefully slipped one of her arms around the woman's back and another underneath her legs and without much effort at all, lifted her.

To say that Kagura was startled would be an understatement.

She'd never met a human female capable of lifting her so easily. Yet Kagome had done so as if she were a mere child. _Weird. If she could do this to me, why hadn't she defended herself against her abusers?_ She wondered. Was it because she had been to afraid that she might actually hurt someone badly? Or was there another reason? Like maybe she was only this strong physically around demons?

It might explain part of how she had almost destroyed her mate's mini me.

The girl carried her over to the wrap around porch attached to the house, and set her down on it carefully. And then drew back away from her for a moment before a particularly vicious gust of cold wind nearly toppled Kagura over, causing the girl to mutter a dark oath or two as she reached out and framed her face with her warm hands.

Kagome's face was a tad bit closer to her own now, both of their breath coming out in little puffs while Kagura tried to soak up some of the warmth from the girl's hands. Up until now, she hadn't realized just how cold she was.

Kagome took note of how cold the woman's skin was as well as the not so subtle shivering of her body and nearly growled, just how damn long had she been sitting outside anyways? Removing her hands from the woman's face, Kagome slipped her jacket off and carefully placed it around the woman's shoulders and told her that she'd be right back and then walked around to the kitchen door and knocked on it to get her mother's attention.

The second that her mom opened the door she asked permission to bring the woman in and let her warm up and maybe join them for lunch. Her mom didn't seem to mind. Especially when Kagome mentioned that she thought the woman may be sick.

The last thing they needed at the shrine was an ill person passing out or suffering from hyperthermia just because they were wary of letting people into their home.

Walking back to where she had left the woman, Kagome helped her up again and this time instead of carrying her, simply led her into the house.


	14. Chapter 14

Once Kagome brought the woman indoors out of the cold, Yuki noticed that the woman was a demoness. Which was...well, somewhat peculiar to Yuki even at shrines that were considered neutral grounds and thus safe for even demon's with the blackest of souls to visit without fear.

The demoness in question was holding her daughter's hand, she was..._frightfully_ thin. Meaning either Kagome was right about her being ill, or the woman had outdone herself on a crash diet and was in desperate need of a lot of food. Though Yuki got the feeling that the woman was indeed ill.

There was a foreign power meshed with her own youki that looked as if it were weakening at an alarming rate. _Could this_ _woman have a mate?_ Yuki wondered as she watched Kagome seat her at the dining room table just off the side of the kitchen and then run from the room to grab a blanket to wrap the woman in as Yuki slowly moved forward to place a mug of hot chocolate in front of the shivering demoness.

"Here you go dear, drink this and warm up some."

The woman looked at Yuki with wide ruby colored eyes and nodded her head quietly. "T-Thank you." She said as politely as she could from between her chattering teeth. Yuki even noticed that her fangs were smaller than a normal demon's. Meaning that the woman sitting at her table was an elemental demon.

_Interesting._ Yuki thought as she finished fixing her own mug and one for Kagome and set them both on the dinning room table at the exact moment that Kagome returned with an electric blanket and wrapped it around the woman before she plugged it in.

"If you give that a few seconds it should warm you up pretty fast." She said before moving to sit down across the table from Kagura.

"T-Thank you. I didn't realize just how cold I had gotten. Demon blood tends to burn a little warmer than human's. But even that can't save us from feeling things like frost bite and hypothermia." Kagura said lightly as she finally started to slowly get warm again. Between the electric blanket, Kagome's jacket, her own clothing and the hot chocolate she knew that it wouldn't be long before she was having hot flashes.

"That is quite alright dear. Please, take your time and warm up and we'll all have a nice little chat about what brings you to our humble little shrine." Yuki said gently as she finally finished the finishing touches on her families lunch and went to sit down.

A few minutes or so wouldn't make much of a difference with the food anyways.

Kagura took a small sip of her drink and snuggled into the electric blanket some and practically purred when she felt the feeling slowly coming back into her face and fingers and toes.

Both Kagome and Yuki exchanged a look as they listened to the woman's soft purrs of contentment and Kagome was half tempted to reach over and run her fingertips along one of the woman's pointed little ears to see what would happen when her mother asked, "So, miss- What brought you to our shrine on such a horridly cold day?"

Kagura stopped purring and blinked at the woman before slowly saying, "I've never been to a shrine before, and well... I received some bad news the other day and thought that perhaps it was time to do so."

"Your sick?"

"I'm dying. From what my doctor told myself and my mate, the only reason that I'm alive now is my mating mark. However because of how sick I am- it is fading and my body can no longer take having it. It a sort of...uh..."

"It's a sort of rejection that is deeply embedded in the instinct of your kind. Since you are on the brink of extinction, it is the only way that you can protect your mate from dying as well."

"In most cases that would be true. However my mate's beast has finally awakened and chosen a breeder for him. Which is good since the darned man would die within a week of starvation and the like if he were left totally to his own vices." Kagura said as she gave Yuki a look that had the woman snapping to attention rather quickly. Going from polite and pleasant mother/hostess to calculating momma bear in the blink of an eye.

_I do not envy Sessho should he manage to get his butt anywhere within this home. Dealing with a protective mother is never easy. _Kagura thought as Kagome said, "Tsk, stupid men. Does your mate have no honor at all? Why would his beast choose a breeder when he has you? Surly the two of you have children."

"Ah- no actually. We wanted pups, but back when we first mated we were too young. And kind of hated each other," She wasn't going to tell the two about her murder attempts, much less Sesshomaru's. It'd screw up the situation even more than it needed to be. "And then with all the wars and such, whenever we thought of pups we worried what would become of them. So we decided to wait until about a hundred years ago before we tried. But nothing came of it. Apparently that's when I began to get ill. And my illness has sort of rendered me sterile. So when he came home to tell me that he found a breeder- I was happy for him. He's always wanted a big family."

"It's still dishonorable of him to even think about cheating on you." Kagome said in a huff. She didn't know who the woman's mate was but she wanted to kick the two timer's ass.

"Oh dear- you misunderstand. My mate may have found himself a breeder, but because of recent findings about her life- thanks to one of her friends being kind enough to speak with him- he knows that she would hate, perhaps even resent him should he take her to his bed before I am gone. And he's already decided- that because she has concerns about being labeled as a home wrecker and a slut and such- that he will wait until I am gone so that he can offer her more than just a place in his home and in his bed. My mate is an honorable man, he would never willingly bring another into his home or his bed while I lived and he could offer nothing to her aside from being the mother of his pups. It would be cruel of him if he did. He wishes to offer the woman a mating. A full partnership. Anything less would be disgraceful to not only him but the woman. Besides, the time between now and then also ensures that he should be able to fall in love with her and vice versa."

"It still sounds like a shady deal." Kagome said as she blew her long bangs out of her eyes.

Meanwhile Yuki sat there soaking up the information before finally nodding her head to the demoness as if to say, _Message received, thanks for informing us_. Gaining a subtle nod from Kagura before Yuki suddenly asked if she would like to have lunch with them since Kagome suggested it earlier.

Kagura happily accepted and then while Yuki got up to get the food and lay it out on the table, and then call the rest of the family down to eat- started making small talk with Kagome when she curiously asked to know more about Kagura's mate.


	15. Chapter 15

Lunch with her mate's breeder and the girl's family turned out to be a nicer endeavor than Kagura had expected it to be. Everyone in the family- including the senile old fart that had slapped a sutra on her and chanted, 'demon be gone' for ten minutes- was...strangely _pleasant_ to be around once she was introduced to them.

And the girl, Kagome, as it turned out had a wonderfully inquisitive mind. She asked all manner of questions, excluding of course, Sesshomaru's penis size and maybe something about the kitchen sink.

Which was why once lunch was done and Kagura thanked them for entertaining her while she warmed up and then let her eat with them, she then politely said her goodbye's and began to leave feeling like she was on a little bit of an information overload.

Not long after she reached the door that she had entered through, Yuki joined her with a jacket in hand, saying something about making sure that she got down the steps alright. Though Kagura suspected that her wanting to walk her out had more to do with possibly confirming who her mate was.

Sure enough once they were outside and a good distance away from the house, Yuki asked, "Your mate is the one who's chosen my daughter, isn't he?"

"Yes."

"I see." Was all that Yuki said for a moment before saying, "He's been sending her flowers."

"I don't doubt he is. The man is good like that."

"Indeed." Yuki said with a note of humor lacing her voice before then asking. "Why did you really come here today? Was it to see his chosen breeder for yourself?'

"Kind of. Call me curious, but I wanted to meet the girl that will one day become his other half and mother of his pups."

"Then this truly doesn't bother you?"

"No. As I said before, I'm dying and as such it isn't really my place to deny Sesshomaru his own happiness. Not when it could mean being able to live his dream of having a big family. However since their first meeting, he has worried about her believing that he is as bad as the ones who have been hurting her. Which is part of the reason he's trying to woo her from a distance. He has no wish to hurt her even more than she already is."

"That's nice to know, however a man can't court a girl over a distance." Yuki pointed out. Causing Kagura to giggle softly.

"You are right. However right now he's trying to think of a better way to approach her. And I thought to help by informing her of what I could about the situation, even if I did so subtly."

"Yes, I thank you for that. You speak of him as if he is a wonderful man who is worthy of my daughter."

"I think he is. Though he'll occasionally need some help to keep her from beating him black and blue." Kagura said. Yuki hummed but said nothing. She knew her daughter had a nasty temper so she could sort of understand the demoness's statement.

"So what will you do now?" Yuki asked once they were at the bottom of the steps. Kagura looked at her for a moment and then gave her a faint smile.

"I have two things that I wish to do," She started as she slipped her wedding ring and engagement ring off of her finger and held them out to Yuki. "Since I'm dying and have no children in which to pass certain things to. I wish for your daughter to have these and a few other choice pieces of my jewelry collection, including my favorite jade necklace and earrings. If she doesn't want to keep them- it's her right to do what she wants with them. However I hope that she saves some of the pieces for her children." Yuki looked a little bit startled by Kagura's action, but still reached out to take the rings from her as she said.

"If Kagome does not want them then I will keep them for my grandchildren."

"Thank you. I would appreciate that."

"And what was the second thing that you wished to do?"

"Oh that, I can do that when I get home and tease my mate mercilessly about wanting to date Kagome. It will vex him to no end." Kagura said with a fanged smile as Yuki blinked at her for a moment before suddenly laughing.

"That is terrible! You wicked woman." Yuki snorted as she tried to muffle the sound of her laughter with one hand while Kagura laughed with her.

"I know but like they say, there's no rest for the wicked. Besides, he needs his nose tweaked some."

"Then please, have fun." Yuki finally said once she managed to get a grip on herself. Kagura smiled again as she opened her car door and wiggled her eyebrows at the woman as she said,

"Oh, I plan to."


	16. Chapter 16

Sesshomaru spent a majority of his day just hanging around after walking into his work place and scaring the hell out of some people who thought he was his own ghost. After that, he spent a few hours in his office looking over things before scaring people again when he decided to leave early to go grab something to eat down the street.

After he had eaten, he got a text from Miroku wondering if he could hang out with him for a few hours. Sesshomaru quickly texted him his whereabouts and sat there patiently waiting for the man long after he had finally finished eating his food.

Once Miroku got there, he turned in his seat upon smelling the man's scent and waved at him to show him where he was and saw the dark haired human's eyes light up as he slowly made his way over to him and dropped down into the seat across from him.

"Thanks for letting me meet you here," He said with a grin. Sesshomaru smiled at him and asked him what he had wanted to meet about since he doubted that Miroku would have wanted to simply hang out for the sake of hanging out. Especially after how he had found out that he was interested in his friend. Miroku looked a tad bit guilty for a second and then said. "I think I may be able to help you get with Kagome. However I want your word- that if she refuses you as a breeder, then you will give up on taking her as such."

Sesshomaru blinked at him and then glared for a moment, wondering what sort of game the male was playing. Of course he would back off if Kagome turned being his breeder down. However his beast practically snapped that there was more than one way to skin a cat if the female refused him in that regard.

And while it was true that he wouldn't force her into anything, he still had to court her and be turned down for that. And if that didn't work, he'd simply have to court her some more.

So basically he was a lot like that TV kid Urkel; he was going to wear her down.

Miroku could tell that his new friend was upset by his words, however he also hoped that he caught on to his hint. If Kagome refused to take up the position of breeder then she should be courted as a normal girl with no child bearing abilities.

After all, the man was sly when it came to the opposite sex. If Kagome felt that she was being courted for her child bearing abilities- then the only way to win her was to remove that from the equation. Doing so and courting her as if she had no child bearing abilities may be the only way that his friends would manage to get together and actually be happy with the outcome.

Especially since he knew that Sesshomaru was planning to offer Kagome a mating before he took her to his bed. And only after his current mate has passed away.

"You have my word of honor that if your friend truly and earnestly doesn't wish to be with this Sesshomaru as a breeder- then I will not court her as such any longer."

"I never said that you shouldn't court her Sesshomaru. I was trying to hint at something, not upset you." Miroku said as he waved his hand at him a little bit.

"This Sesshomaru knows that you were hinting at attempting to court your friend as a female without child bearing abilities." The inu said. Miroku smiled at him again as he slowly nodded his head to confirm the man's words before he then clapped his hands together and suddenly said,

"Okay, now that that is out of the way- what do you say that I help you with a few courting gifts. I'm assuming that you've sent her flowers at some point. So the first phase of courtship is complete. Next comes the nicer gifts. I can show you some shops around here run by demons. Specialty shops with jewelry, handmade chocolates and other goods that I know Kagome would love."

Sesshomaru opened his mouth to say something, but then closed his mouth again, deciding that perhaps a friend of his Kagome might actually be of some help to him. And it would be rude to refuse the man's offer to help, wouldn't it?

"Very well. I understand the condition that you have given me and will attempt to approach your friend this time around not as a breeder, but as an ordinary female."

"Good man. Come on. There's a specialty shop full of handmade goods that Kagome would die to get her hands on. Especially since the owner of the shop is an old schoolmate of ours who made a whole line of jewelry, scented soaps, lotions, and perfumes that were inspired by Kagome." Miroku said as he got up out of his seat.

Sesshomaru's eyes nearly widened to the point where Miroku had to bend down and pick them up off of the floor as he quickly scrambled out of his seat with his jacket in hand and asked, "What's the name of the shop?"

"Star Struck," Miroku grinned before going on to say, "The guy that started the shop, started it with his ideal girl in mind. Of course his ideal girl at the time that they met was no more than ten years old. And she shot him down flat. But the two of them still stayed such good friends that he decided to go ahead and start his shop with that same girl in mind in the hopes that some day another just like her would walk through the door and he'd be able to sweep her off of her feet."

Sesshomaru listened to Miroku speak as they left the restaurant and started walking. The two spent half an hour walking and chit-chatting about nothing and everything at all until they finally reached the shop and Miroku walked up to the door of the shop and slowly opened it as he said teasingly, "Be careful of the guy inside. He's not a huge fan of inu's despite technically being a canine himself."

"Hn." Sesshomaru said as they both entered the shop and were standing in the middle of it when they both heard someone call out from the back,

_"What the fuck smells like dog in here?" _

Sesshomaru turned his head and gave Miroku a funny look mere moments before a slightly shorter male with long black hair tied back into a ponytail was up in Sesshomaru's face sniffing him before muttering, "Oh. It's you that smells like dog."

"What wonderful customer service you have." He said dryly, causing the male to look at him through slightly narrowed blue eyes before he stepped back some.

"Welcome to Star Struck, I'm Koga Ookami the owner of the store. Let me know if you need me to help you with anything," And then turned and walked away before tossing out a "Hey Miroku, long time no see." From over his shoulder.


	17. Chapter 17

Sesshomaru and Miroku spent the better part of an hour in a half looking through stuff until Sesshomaru had a fairly sizable selection of goods in his basket. Miroku had pointed out several handmade soaps, perfumes, lotions, body scrubs, shampoos and conditioners that matched each other.

The scents ranging from Peony, vanilla and peach, to honeysuckle lily. He'd also found a little something called Blush that smelled a little bit like Vanilla and magnolia with a touch of sandalwood to it that was mouthwatering to the inu.

Once he was done collecting everything that matched the scents, Miroku then directed him to the jewelry. The ookami, Koga had a little bit of everything from beaded and affordable on any budget. To pieces of very fine and wonderfully expensive pieces that Sesshomaru managed to find a few items of.

One of which happened to be a necklace and earring set uniquely cut flawless pink tourmalines, cut in the shapes of stars, set in white gold with little two and three millimeter round diamonds dangling from the bottom of the earrings to give the appearance of star dust.

The second one was a stunning white gold ring with flawless pink and white diamonds set in a sakura blossom pattern. He also found a piece that the ookami had been particularly proud of since he named it, The Princess's Heart.

Which was a nice sized blood ruby cut in the shape of a heart with little baguette's and round diamonds surrounding the heart and embedded in the band.

Sesshomaru had gotten that too, much to the ookami's shock.

Once he was done raiding all of the ookami's stock of the scented stuff he had collected, Sesshomaru decided that it was time to check out and paid more than fifteen thousand dollars per piece of jewelry alone. The rest of the stuff cost him about eight hundred and thirty seven dollars.

All in all he didn't mind the sum. It really didn't do much in the way of making a decent dent his bank account anyways. Though Miroku seemed a tad bit nervous and told him that he should send the stuff to Kagome in installments so that it would last longer.

Whereas Sesshomaru was planning to wait under the cloak of night and deliver everything to the shrine in baskets with pretty ribbons and bows. Hell he might even find his naughty Santa costume and stay at the shrine all night and simply surprise the girl in person. Of course he'd have to modify his costume a bit to make it less naughty since he very much doubted that if the girl saw him, she'd jump up in his arms and let him carry her off into the sunset.

Still it was an idea.

Once everything was placed in one of those weird Eco friendly shopping bags that a lot of people got to use in place of papers and plastics, and a few of the other of the items were gift wrapped, Sesshomaru thanked the ookami and picked up his bags and walked out of the shop as Miroku called out a goodbye to the wolf and quickly caught up with him.

"Did you really need to get so much?" He asked curiously, he had never met a straight man who could shop like a gay man could. So he was a tad bit out of his element here.

"Yes. When courting a female- no matter who she is who what species she belongs to- one must go all out sometimes just to be given the time of day."

"Sounds...odd, but okay."

"It's something that my father told me long ago when he was courting my mother."

"Wait, your dad was courting your mom after you had been born?"

"Yeah, I was a bastard child at first since they skipped a few steps. However my father was a great lord, and my mother was the equivalent of a Queen as far as ranking went. Both of their families hated each other, and decided that my mother was to mate another one of my father's enemies. My father crashed the wedding and stole my mother away and held her hostage for a while."

"Sounds like a soap opera."

Sesshomaru chuckled. "It was."

"Did your father finally manage to win your fair mother's heart?"

"Her heart, no. But they had a decent enough relationship. They didn't mistreat each other, my father wasn't what one would consider abusive even by today's standards. Even though things like spousal abuse and rape and such didn't exist back then. He never raised his hand to my mother, nor did he ever attempt to take her to his bed when she was unwilling. I don't even recall a time when he so much as yelled at her."

"Was he a lot like you?"

"No. My father was a bit more hardened. My mate likens me to a marshmallow that's slowly melting."

"Nice and gooey."

"Among other things." Sesshomaru chuckled.

"I see. So what happened with your parents if your father didn't win your mother's heart?"

"My mother died at the hands of her kinsmen when they learned that she and my father were to be married. They slipped a spy into my father's home the night of the wedding and slit her throat. My father found her an hour before the ceremony and became mad with grief and rage. He changed to his true form, and left the palace with my mother's body carefully grasped in his mouth and after laying her to rest in a holy place where the heavens and the earth meet, he then went and killed every male and older female that once made up mother's clan. However he spared the young children and infants as well as a few elders that had no combat capabilities. Allowing each of them to live the life that my mother had stolen from her. After that he returned home and continued to grieve for many years, and then he met his breeder. A pretty little human hime."

"I bet that caused a lot of problems."

"Oh yes. Back then relationships between demon's and human's were looked down upon. However my father was practically the highest ranking lord in all japan at the time, and would hear nothing of it. He was so blindly mad for the girl that he accidentally started several wars while trying to woo her. Two of which were holy wars."

Miroku looked at him slack jawed for a moment before practically shouting. "How does one _accidentally_ start a holy war?" To which Sesshomaru shrugged his shoulders as if to say, _Those are the breaks, these things happen. _

"I think it had a lot to do with some holy relics that somehow managed to accidentally find themselves dropped into my father's clawed hands."

"What kind of relics?"

"Something about a grail and an ark." Sesshomaru said. Miroku didn't just stop walking, he tripped over his own feet and fell, grabbing a hand full of Sesshomaru's long hair on the way down and dragging him down to the sidewalk with him as the inu let out a very loud dog-like yelp of surprise.


	18. Chapter 18

A short time after getting up off of the sidewalk, the inu was so upset over having his long hair pulled that Miroku had had to buy his affection again- as weird as that sounded- with iced cream. Blueberry iced cream to be exact. The same kind that his Kagome had eaten when she had gone out with her female friend on the day that he had met Miroku.

Taking a large bite of the tasty treat, he made extra sure to flash his elongated fangs at Miroku before biting into his treat and watched as the male paled a little bit at the intimidating sight of his fangs before asking, "Are you still pissed at me?"

Sesshomaru hummed, but didn't truly respond due to the fact that he currently was suffering from a terrible case of brain freeze. To be perfectly honest, he was still a tad bit miffed about what had happened when Miroku had tripped, but he wasn't so angry that he was willing to sink his fangs into the male's body somewhere tender just to get back at him.

That would just be immature.

Besides, there were only a few area's on the male's body that he dared go near with his fangs. And to really get his point across, he would have to sink his fangs into his ass, and though the male was his friend and smelled decently enough- he wasn't biting no one's butt.

The questions, and the tooth loss simply wasn't worth it.

Nor was gargling enough bleach to kill an adult elephant just to kill the germs. That stuff burned like hell fire. And one could never seem to use enough of it anyways.

Finally he finished up the last of his iced cream and slowly got up out of his seat to go get in line for some more. This time he was in the mood for some peach. Miroku, apparently misunderstood why he was up and began to collect their things so that they could leave until he growled softly for the man to sit back down and fork over his wallet.

The Blueberry ice cream may have been an appeasement of sorts, but his pride as a man was still injured. Thus he was going to get some more ice cream.

Miroku sighed and handed him his wallet and watched as he took out a twenty before handing it back to him and then walked off only to return a few moments later with a large tub- the same kind that the people behind the counter scooped the iced cream out of- and set it down on the table with a thump and then sat himself back down while Miroku watched him with wide eyes as he practically attacked the ice cream.

Ten minutes later, he polished off the last of the peach flavored ice cream from the tub and pushed it aside so that he could lay his head down on the table. He had brain freeze again. And it was a lot stronger this time, so much so that he was _amazed_ that his nose wasn't bleeding from the intensity of it.

"Thank you Miroku. That was...nice..." Sesshomaru's voice rumbled softly as Miroku chuckled at him before dangling a napkin in front of his gold colored eyes.

"I'm glad that I could appease your beast in such a manner without losing life or limb. Here, wipe your mouth. You're drooling a little bit onto the table."

"I am?" Sesshomaru asked, curiously, wondering if that had anything to do with why his face was feeling a little bit damp at the moment. Quietly taking the offered napkin from Miroku, he lifted his head just enough to place the piece of course paper under his head and then laid it back down on the table earning a soft chuckle of amusement from his human companion.

"Did you tire yourself out gorging on the ice cream?"

"Nah. Brain freeze." Sesshomaru said simply as he felt his phone vibrate a few times and slowly reached into his pants pocket to get it knowing that if he didn't Kagura would leave another weird message for him. Like the time she had gotten bored trying to get ahold of him and sang Baby got Back into the phone, which embarrassed the hell out of him since he had decided to listen to it once he was finished with his meeting at work- without the room being cleared. A mistake that he had sworn that he would never ever make again in his lifetime nor any other.

He couldn't recall any other time that he had ever blushed such a vivid red before.

Finally managing the energy to slip his phone out of his pocket and flip it open just in time to save himself, he placed it to his ear and listened to Kagura for a moment before she sent him several pictures to his phone that she thought he would 'die' to have his mitts on and then hung up.

Curious to see if it was another cute animal photo, that he knew she would quiz him on later, Sesshomaru lifted his head up off of the table and checked the inbox on his phone where Kagura had sent the pictures to and opened the attachment that read, Kagome and me and then froze. His eyes going wide at the sight of several pictures of his Kagome in a teeny dark blue bikini bathing suit, topless with her long hair pulled up into a ponytail- _Hello breasts! _

And another of her and Kagura together, _kissing_.

If his tongue hadn't been hanging out of his mouth before with the bare breasts photo, it certainly was now.

The pictures were so perfectly wonderful and arousing that it elicited a small whine from him that caused Miroku to lean over and see what he was staring at only to choke for a second before Sesshomaru quickly glared at him and snapped his phone shut and then looked at the man who had a dumbstruck expression on his face as he said stupidly, "I saw boob. Was it an illusion?"

"No. I saw it too."

"We should go...check on our girls."

"Yes, yes we should."

"Talk at you later." Miroku said as he quickly got to his feet collected his items and made a beeline for the door and then slammed into it and fell over before Sesshomaru could so much as say.

"Okay, text me."


End file.
